Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Is Montessori the answer to gifted education?

Hi,

I like some of the concepts of Montessori, such as individualized pacing and the school setting being organized with materials that all have a point to them.

We tried a montessori at the age of 14 months (for 3-7 year olds this school is the most well regarded in our area) and it was terrible for that age, a small room with a few objects laid out where the children were just expected to "learn" something on their own by being truly ignored by the staff. The concept of "self-motivated exploration" gone wrong. The montessori philosophy was just a grandiose excuse for ignoring the kids. They even applied this to the infants where before they could reach for things or sit up they were just left to lie unhappy on the ground for long periods. The school ended their under-2 program not long after our short trial of it, so I think their directors realized also that it wasn't working.

My one experience with their program for 2s or it may have been 3s was a sneak look I got at the program when one teacher didn't realize I was watching. The kids were outdoors playing on play equipment for about 45 minutes, I was in the adjacent parking lot in my car waiting for DS to wake up from his nap before I took him into the infant/toddler room. The kids looked happy enough. The 3-5 year olds' teacher didn't realize I was there. She was on her cell the entire time, laughing, chatting etc, not involved with the kids in any way. My DS woke from his nap and I carried him up past her, as soon as she noticed me she put the phone behind her back and said in a voice made loud so that I would hear, "look children, look at the leaves, its fall and the leaves are falling...". A little show put on just for my benefit.

Its really tough to know how teachers behave with kids when you aren't there to watch, in any type of program, unless your child is old enough to really get into detail about what they did that day. The montessori philosophy especially can be so vague that I think that lazy teachers may find they get away with doing very little in a montessori, where in a traditional program they might be expected to send home a craft with each child, do a circle time each day, etc, keeping them actually doing something.

At the age when kids can act as reporters on their teachers then I think Montessori is a safer option. Perhaps next year when DS is 3 and could be in a mixed 3-5 classroom we'll consider it again.

My concerns at the 3-5 and kindergarten age are just as others have said, will he be made to use the materials only in the way he is "supposed" to. Will he be made to finish every activity and will he have to complete everything in the ordained order. Will his already perfectionistic tendencies be heightened by the teachers emphasizing not spilling, etc.

Polly

Whatever your take on Montessori, the simple fact is that Montessori is not a patented name. There are two institutions that make every effort to insure excellent Montessori teaching (the American and International Societies), but basically anyone can take the Montessori name and set up a 'Montessori' school without the slightest training or knowledge of the philosophy. I think this is the greatest issue that has dogged the public's understanding of Montessori for many a year. If you are looking to Montessori schools please be certain that the school you pick is accredited or at the very least has qualified Montessori teachers.

Two of my children (both assessed as GT), have attended excellent Montessori schools that did a tremendous job supporting their academic abilities as well as social and emotional needs. Now, having transitioned to public schools, the switch has been remarkably smooth.

Meh. Ours was accredited. It didn't help.

If anything, I think they might have been less lockstep about having to go through every step of the process even though he knew them if they hadn't been accredited.

I don't know that for sure, and there are certain things about the Montessori Method that are pretty important to be faithful to or else it really isn't Montessori at all. But I stand by my statement that the school philosophy--whether Montessori or anything else--matters significantly less than if the teacher gets your child or not.

Well, I certainly agree with the last part. Teacher rapport, support and understanding is undoubtedly the most important thing. All I was trying to say was that with a school that uses Montessori without Montessori training isn't likely to go well (nor would any school with untrained class teachers). There are good and bad Montessori and traditional schools, but the base line of requring qualifications does at least compare them fairly.

The particular Montessori school we were considering is Internationally accredited, and all teachers are specifically Montessori trained and certified. They follow the montessori model exactly from what I can tell from visiting. Although, I do think the teachers are involved with the students in that they help direct students when needed,and they do small group or one-on-one instruction throughout the day. I don't think the issue in our particular case is whether they are truly Montessori or not; the question is: does a true Montessori approach work well with gifted children? I do think this school is committed to the the step by step Montessori method, and I'd say that would be torture for my son. I love the school so much; I wish there was some way to spend part of the day there. Not an option for first KG or 1st grade.

OK, so posting from the perspective of a true Montessori school, I would say that it can work great for some gifted kids and be a disaster for others.

Overall, I think that the Montessori method works well, in general, for gifted kids when they are among the younger in their group. It is great when they are 6 or early 7 in the 6-9 class. The materials are set for them, up to 3 years ahead of their age level, they get to interact with older kids, etc. Then, when they get older (within the group), the material is less challenging or they might have finished it (some schools might be open to providing the child with the next level up materials, but some might not want it, or might not even have it); and then they are stuck with kids younger than them, who might be intellectually at a much lower level (due to asynchronous development).

Some PP mentioned the "chaos" of the Mont classroom. I think that, for the most part, Montessori preschools are much more quiet than play based and developmental preschools. Kids are supposed to be doing their work quietly. I think this is a plus for kids with some OE and too sensitive to noise, for example. This part was one that did NOT work for our rambuctious dd. She wanted to socialize more than anything else. Instead of choosing work that was appropriate and challenging for her (according to Maria Mont.'s theory), she'd choose works that she could do with a buddy or, as an alternative, works too hard for her to do on her own, so that the teacher would help. In short, socialization was driving her choices....

The other reason Mont. did NOT work for our dd (preschool), was that she is a very independent thinker, a divergent person. I take a look around in our family room right now and I see polly pockets sleeping in the Calico Critters house, and wooden furniture furnishing Lego creations. in Montessori, you can't combine materials from different things. You can't put the fuzzy balls with the cotton balls for pincer work. In the same sense, she always looks at novel ways of doing things. Montessori materials are self-correcting and are supposed to be used in a certain way.

We switched her to another preschool this year, more challenging in many ways, with a Reggio-Emilia base and constructivist base (among other things). The first thing we noticed in her is that now she talks about the exciting things she did or learned at school. Last year we only got reports of who sat with who, who held her hand, etc. We still get those, but now we get things like "wow! we are learning about germs, I am going to ask tomorrow if plants also get sick from germs!".

In my opinion there is no program that can hold a candle to montessori when it comes to academics.
Where else can a 3 yr old do multipication and division?
Where else can a 3 yr old be given any where near appropriate work.

My son went from doing Long division in Monessori in kindergarten to counting dots in a "gifted Public"

That's great, traceyqns! I wish our Montessori had been 1/4 that good.

Actually my DS5's church/play-based preschool did a lot better for him with math and reading than the Montessori school did with my older son. The teachers at the church preschool were AMAZING! I'd bet 3/4 of the class happened to be at least MG, and some were probably HG, and they just adjusted everything up to where the kids were. It worked amazingly well!

But we had another teacher at the exact same preschool who was pretty lousy with GT kids. <shrug> From what I can tell, the teacher matters more than the program.

Hi Kriston, Yeah guess that is really the truth it all depends on the teacher. They are probably few and far between right?

Sadly, I think that's more true than we would like. But thank goodness for the good teachers and programs, huh?